The Role of the Experiencing Self in Temporary Architecture Experiential architecture is immediately recognizable as you are sensing it in the moment. One such example is the Blur Building by Diller + Scofidio, a temporary exhibit for the Swiss National Expo of 2002 in Yverdon-lesBains, Switzerland. Suspended over the Lake Neuchâtel with 35,000 high pressure nozzles spraying fog, the structure creates the illusion of a hovering cloud. An architecture of atmosphere,5 the fog mass “expands and produces long fog trails in high winds and rolls outward at cooler temperatures,” 6 changing from minute to minute depending on weather conditions. Sensory deprivation – or a play on the senses – creates another layer of temporal experience. Whitenoise from the fog nozzles and an optical whiteout divorce the visitor from acoustical and visual stimuli and force them to experience the physical nature of the installation. Reference to time and
place is removed. All that is left is the encounter and the visitor’s perception of the space. Of course, the Remembering Self will extrapolate its own memories of the installation, but the architecture itself is successful in connecting and interacting with the Experiencing Self.
In this Issue Temporality in architecture can imply an experiential evolution, from a temporary exhibit to a re-purposed existing space. It is a commentary on time itself, a commentary on the unexpected and on a unique set of outliers that are never exactly the same twice. Whether relating to the physical duration of a building or expressing the transitory nature through a theory, the topic of temporality can be explored in many ways. This issue of Forward endeavors to present works that reflect on the roles of time, duration, adaptation and presence in design.
Image 04_Blur Building by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
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